Paul began 2 Corinthians Chapter 3 by discussing false teachers who have introduced themselves through letters of recommendations. Paul was saying that he did not need any letter of recommendation because God had blessed him due to his labors. As a result, Paul himself could appeal to them as the best proof of the God’s Word.
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Paul’s Real Testimony
Paul said in 2 Corinthians Chapter 3 that real testimonies are not written in ink, but by the Holy Spirit in the tablet of the human heart. He said that some people are too confident, thinking that their knowledge is from within themselves. However, this is not true as it can only be from God.
Through Christ, Paul said that God made each believer a competent minister who is able to preach of the new covenant. It was not because of the letters that were written by human hands, but of the Holy Spirit which gives life.
Ministry of the Holy Spirit
Paul said that if the ministry that was engraved on stone brought glory, then the ministry brought by the Holy Spirit is even greater. If the ministry that brings condemnation is already glorious, then the one that brings only righteousness and life is so much better.
Christ Has Removed the Veil
He says that the transitions come with glory, but the difference is that this glory lasts – it is eternal. Paul said, unlike the times of Moses, believers do not have to cover themselves with a veil because it has been removed because Christ has taken it away. Through this unveiling, we will be able to transform in his image and witness the ever-increasing glory of God.
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2 Corinthians 3 (King James Version)
1 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?
2 Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:
3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
4 And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:
5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
7 But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
9 For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
10 For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.
11 For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.
12 Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:
13 And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:
14 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.
15 But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.
16 Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.
17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.